Temporary or semi-permanent support surfaces and other components have been used for roadways, remote jobsites, industrial staging areas and the like in an ever-increasing myriad of industries, such as the construction, military, oilfield, transportation, disaster response, utilities and entertainment industries. It is sometimes necessary or desirable to provide one or more upright items in connection with the support surface. A few examples of upright items that, depending upon the particular scenario and application, may be used in connection with support surfaces are signs, fences, safety barriers, markers, road reflectors, warning sirens, beacons or other lights or other accessories, or a combination thereof. As used herein, the terms “upright member” and variations thereof mean any item or combination of items desired to be visible or audible from a particular location on a support surface.
In some applications and use scenarios, the upright item should be able to withstand some amount of forces applied to them. For example, in some instances, the forces may be wind forces. For another example, the forces may be leaning loads, such as the forces of personnel leaning on a safety barrier. If desired, the upright item may be designed to satisfy regulatory or other load-bearing standards or requirements, such as OSHA's proscribed load target(s) for supporting leaning loads. Thus, there is a need for improved apparatus, systems and methods for supporting upright items from a support surface.
It should be understood that the above-described features and capabilities are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope or subject matter of the appended claims or those of any related patent application or patent. Thus, none of the appended claims or claims of any related application or patent should be limited by the above discussion or construed to address, include or exclude each or any of the above-cited features or capabilities merely because of the mention thereof herein.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved systems, articles and methods for supporting one or more upright items from a support surface having one or more of the attributes or capabilities described or shown in, or as may be apparent from, the other portions of this disclosure.